The young Marx's Critique of Hegel. The Kreuznach Manuscript

Abstract

The Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of the State is a text of vital importance for Marx’s philosophical-political development where it criticizes Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. The article will address three main topics: 1) Marx articulates its critique by using concepts and ideas belonging to the young Hegelians, especially Feuerbach with his critique of the inversion of subject and object, i.e., the Idea in Hegel is the subject and the objects its predicates. In the reading of this unfinished draft, we can already glimpse the foundations of the methodological reformulation between Hegel and Marx. However, this critique suffers in many cases from a vision of Hegel and his theory that is certainly limited; 2) Hegel was very conscious of the new challenges presented by the incipient modern society and oriented his political philosophy to unveil the contradictions and put a solution to them under the State. However, Marx will point out that Hegel is not capable of harmonizing the particularities of civil society and that ultimately private property ends up determining the State; 3) By banishing the centrality of the Idea and its incarnation in the Hegelian State, Marx, with Feuerbach, proposes to locate human beings in its place, so that the realization of their political essence will no longer be under the constitutional monarchical State but in a democratic and republican State. The article aims to give an account of the breadth of Marx’s critique and, ultimately, to put it in relation to recent trends of «New Hegelian Marxism» by highlighting the importance of this manuscript.